Method and apparatus for online health monitoring

ABSTRACT

Presented are apparatus and methods for providing online health monitoring and accumulating data from patients applicable in both diagnosing and prescribing preventive medical treatment. Methods and devices include using a sensitive acoustic device to analyze a patient&#39;s health function from a location such as a public computer kiosk, a doctor&#39;s office or a patient&#39;s computer. The data may be downloaded to a central database, for example, via the Internet. The data may be retrieved by the patient, or accessed by doctors for purposes of diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. The data may include demographic data that can be stored while maintaining patient anonymity. The data may be accessible to researchers providing medical statistics on a wide variety of patients from various age groups, ethnic backgrounds, medical histories and the like.

This application is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 09/404,269, filed Oct.15, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,069, issued Jul. 17, 2007, the entirecontents of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The instant invention relates generally to an apparatus and methodutilizing data processing for a business practice, and relates morespecifically to an apparatus and method for use with health care andpatient record management.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure, is a leadingcause of cardiovascular diseases in humans. Each year, cardiovasculardiseases, including heart attacks, aneurysm, strokes andatherosclerosis, result in the deaths of tens of thousands of adults inthe United States alone.

Hypertension does not manifest itself with symptoms that are readilydetectable to its victims. A person who forgoes regular examinations maynot realize they have hypertension until it produces one or more of thevarieties of life-threatening and/or fatal cardiovascular diseaseslisted above.

The real tragedy with hypertension is that it is readily treatable bynon-invasive means such as medication, physical exercise and acombination of the two. Furthermore, any physiological damage caused byhypertension is largely reversible after detection via the samenon-invasive treatments when the condition is detected early and,perhaps, with certain surgical procedures when the condition is notdetected early. In any event, detection of the condition provides thekey to both saving lives and lowering health care and social costsarising from the prevalence of hypertension.

Recognizing this, the United States government, the health insuranceindustry, hospitals, physicians and health organizations, such as theAmerican Heart Association, spend millions of dollars annually to raisepublic awareness, fund research, as well as to detect and treathypertension. However, recent studies suggest that over 35% of peoplesuffering from hypertension today may be unaware that they are potentialvictims.

An additional problem arises in that there are no provisions forcreating or accessing large databases of current patient data relatingto hypertension or other health conditions. Such a database could, amongother things, aid researchers in identifying particular groups of peoplewho may be prone to hypertension and could help track the progress ofefforts to reduce fatalities resulting from this condition.

There is, therefore, a need for an apparatus and method that would morereadily raise individual awareness of hypertension, identify bothpotential candidates for treatment and those afflicted with thecondition, as well as provide a centrally-accessible database availableto researchers and physicians for monitoring both individuals and thepopulation at large.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to address and solve certain of the foregoing problems, theinstant invention includes a method for compiling health information bymeans of a computer-controlled apparatus. The method comprises the stepsof: (1) establishing a database for storing a plurality of healthstatuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database iscentrally-accessible; (2) receiving, from a user, data corresponding toa health statistic of the user, the data being generated by a healthmonitoring device; (3) determining a health status of the user from thehealth statistic; (4) storing the health status in the database; and (5)updating a population statistic based on the health status and theplurality of health statuses.

The instant invention further includes a method, performed by acomputer-controlled apparatus, for submitting acoustical cardiovasculardata to a central database. The method comprises the steps of: (1)receiving, from a user, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal ofthe user; (2) initializing a cardiovascular monitoring device connectedto a computer in response to the request; (3) measuring thecardiovascular signal during a startup routine performed by thecomputer; (4) receiving, at the computer, at least a portion of thedetected cardiovascular signal of the user; and (5) transmitting databased on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database forstorage in a record corresponding to the user.

The methods and apparatus of the instant invention are contemplated topreferably include the use of an electret transducer as disclosed inU.S. Pat. No. 4,598,590 issued to Busch-Vishniac et al. on Jul. 8, 1986,and to incorporate the method of detecting cardiovascular signals, knownas wideband external pulse monitoring, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.5,913,826 issued to Blank on Jun. 22, 1999, both of which areincorporated herein by reference. This device may yield more accurateresults than traditional measurements using blood pressure cuffs, whichare subject to human error.

In a particular embodiment, an electret transducer may be connected to apersonal computer (PC) and used by a patient to measure her bloodpressure. The electret transducer is activated during the startuproutine performed by the PC when power to the PC is turned on. Uponcompletion of the startup routine, the resulting health statistic istransferred, preferably automatically, to the PC and then may further betransferred to a centrally-located computer. There, the results may beanalyzed to determine a health status which is stored in a database usedin conjunction with the instant invention.

The methods and accompanying apparatus are further contemplated to beused in conjunction with measuring a health statistic known as a “realage factor.” A suitable method for determining a real age factor isdisclosed by, for example, RealAge.com located on the Internet athttp://www.realage.com. The method is further disclosed in a bookentitled “Real Age—Are You As Young As You Can Be” by Dr. Michael F.Roizen, M.D. In accordance with the invention, it is contemplated that apatient's real age factor is initially determined by, for example, apatient's responses to a questionnaire concerning the patient's physicaland mental health, as well as personal habits, environmental influencesand other factors which have been recognized as affecting aging. Thepatient's resulting health status will be modified whenever a new bloodpressure measurement has been entered and stored in the patient'sdatabase record. Furthermore, it is contemplated that normative statusesrelating to the monitored population as a whole will be changed by eachindividual entry and that such statistics can be updated in real time.

One advantage of the present invention lies with the ability to monitorand update both individual patient's health statistics as well aspopulation statistics for all users that submit health statistics to thesystem. Such statistics may further be monitored and analyzed in realtime.

A further advantage is that physicians, insurance companies and medicalresearchers, along with other interested parties, may access theinformation. The system of the present invention may provide unlimitedaccess to certain parties, such as treating physicians, or may onlyprovide certain information to other parties, such as researchers, whileconcealing an identity (in particular, a name or other identifyinginformation) of a patient, thereby preserving her privacy. Insurancecompanies may receive statistical information for the population todetermine health care premiums and the like, the computation of which isdependent on population-wide health data. However, access to informationspecific to a person may be denied to preserve privacy and to avoidhealth-based discrimination in the purchasing of health insurance.

A still further advantage is that fees may be charged for the provisionor use of monitoring equipment, for submissions of data to the databaseor for use of information from the database, so as to fund theestablishment, preservation and/or augmentation of the disclosed system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the instant invention will be more readilyappreciated upon review of the detailed description of the preferredembodiments included below when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a network for use with theinstant invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the central processing system ofthe instant invention;

FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating an exemplary database containing useridentification data which is used in conjunction with the instantinvention; and

FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary database containing usermedical data which is used in conjunction with the instant invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to FIGS. 1 through 3B, wherein similar or identicalcomponents of the instant invention are referenced in like manner,preferred methods and accompanying apparatus for online healthmonitoring are disclosed.

FIG. 1 depicts a networked system 10 for use with the present invention.System 10 preferably includes a communication network 17 fortransmitting data between a central processing system 20 and personalcomputer(s) 11, public kiosk(s) 12, physician computer(s) 13, researchercomputer(s) 14 and insurance provider computer(s) 15. Personalcomputer(s) 11, public kiosk(s) 12 and physician computer(s) 13, inturn, are each preferably connected to a health monitoring device 16.

Communication network 17 may be any type of connection operable totransmit data between the central processing system 20 and the computers11-15. Thus, the communication network 17 may be any one or more of alocal area network, a wide area network, an electronic bulletin boardsystem, a telecommunications line and the Internet.

Computers 11-15 may be any computing device operative to receive datafrom a user and/or a monitoring device 16 and to transmit and receivedata through communication network 17 in conjunction with centralprocessing system 20. The computing device may also be capable ofperforming certain calculations in storing data. In particular, personalcomputer(s) 11 are preferably one or more home personal computers ownedor operated by persons who wish to have their health monitored by system10.

Public kiosk(s) 12 are one or more freestanding public displays whichinclude computer devices operative to receive data from a user and/or amonitoring device 16 and to transmit and receive data throughcommunication network 17 in conjunction with central processing system20. In one embodiment of the instant invention, it is contemplated thatin order to promote public awareness, freestanding kiosks 12 will beplaced in public areas such as shopping malls, amusement parks,fairgrounds, transportation terminals, and the like, so that members ofthe public may submit their personal and medical information andreceive, inter alia, hypertension screening by submitting to a testusing monitoring device 16 in operative connection with kiosk 12.

Physician computer(s) 13 are preferably one or more computing devicesoperative to receive data from a patient visiting a physician and/orfrom monitoring device 16 and to transmit and receive data throughcommunication network 17 in conjunction with central processing system20. In one embodiment of the instant invention, patients may submittheir personal and medical information as well as submit to hypertensionscreening using monitoring device 16 while visiting his or her treatingphysician. The physician may store the data locally on physiciancomputer(s) 13 and/or on central processing system 20 and may retrievesuch information as required for purposes of diagnosis and treatment.

Researcher computer(s) 14 are and insurance provider computer(s) 15 arepreferably operative to retrieve data from central processing system 20through communication network 17. It is contemplated that researchers inthe medical field may want access to health statistics compiled bysystem 10 in order to monitor the health of an individual or thepopulation at large. In the case of insurance providers, it iscontemplated that they may want access to such information in order todetermine, inter alia, thresholds for health risks in determiningpremiums for providing health care insurance. Thus, access to collectedinformation may be provided to these groups as well as others notspecifically mentioned. Access to the information may be provided eitherfor free or for a fee. Access may furthermore be provided on asubscriber basis or on a transaction-by-transaction basis. In addition,access to individual records may be provided to these and other entitieswhile maintaining the anonymity of the individual submitting theinformation and/or suppressing any other submitted information asdesired.

Health monitoring device 16 may be an electret transducer or foilelectret transducer as described above and as set forth in more detailin U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,826. However, it is further contemplated that thehealth monitoring device may also be any acoustic or other device fordetecting blood pressure and which may transfer data to a computer 11-13or central processing system 20.

Turning now to FIG. 2, depicted therein is the central processing system(CPS) 20. CPS 20 is operative to receive program instructions and userinputs, and is further operative to output results corresponding to suchinstructions and inputs, in accordance with the present invention. CPS20 comprises a processor 22 which may be any commonly availablemicroprocessor such as the PENTIUM III manufactured by INTEL CORP.Processor 22 is operatively connected to RAM/ROM 24, clock 26, datastorage device 30 (which stores program 32 and database 34), inputdevice(s) 28 and output device(s) 29.

The random-access memory (RAM) portion of RAM/ROM 24 may be a suitablenumber of Single In-line Memory Module (SIMM) chips having a storagecapacity (typically measured in kilobytes or megabytes) sufficient tostore and transfer, inter alia, processing instructions utilized byprocessor 22 and received from program 32 during the operation ofcentral processing system 20. The read-only memory (ROM) portion ofRAM/ROM 24 may be any permanent non-re-writable memory medium capable ofstoring and transferring, inter alia, processing instructions performedby processor 22 during a start-up routine of central processing system20. Further functions of RAM/ROM 24 will be apparent to one of ordinaryskill in the art.

Clock 26 may be an on-board component of processor 22 which dictates aclock speed (typically measured in MHz) at which processor 22 performsand synchronizes, inter alia, communication between hardware componentsof central processing system 20. Further functions of clock 26 will beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

Input device(s) 28 may be one or more commonly known devices, which maybe used for communicating information to central processing system 20via either another computer system or by user inputs. Accordingly, inputdevice(s) 28 may include a keyboard, a mouse, a graphics tablet, ascanner, a voice recognition unit, a parallel or serial communicationport, a modem, a network connection and any appropriate network or othercommunication card for receiving data. Input device(s) 28 is/areoperative to allow a user to input instructions and values in accordancewith the present invention.

Output device(s) 29 may be one or more commonly known devices, which maybe used by central processing system 20 to communicate the results ofinput instructions and values to a user of the central processing system20. Accordingly, output device(s) 29 may include a display monitor, avoice synthesizer, a printer, a parallel or serial communication port, amodem, a network connection and any appropriate network or othercommunication card for sending data. Output device(s) 29 is/areoperative to allow a user to receive the results of input instructionsand values in accordance with the present invention.

Data storage device 30 may be an internal or external large capacitymemory for storing computer data, the storage capacity of which istypically measured in megabytes or gigabytes. Data storage device 30stores, inter alia, an operating system (not shown) such as WINDOWS NTby MICROSOFT CORP, and one or more application programs, such as program32 and database 34. Accordingly, data storage device 30 may be one ormore of the following: a floppy disk drive, a hard disk drive, a CD-ROMdisk and reader/writer, a DVD disk and reader/writer, a ZIP disk and aZIP drive of the type manufactured by IOMEGA CORP., and/or any othercomputer readable medium that may be encoded with processinginstructions in a read-only or read-write format. Further functions of,and available devices for, data storage device 30 will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art.

Program 32 includes a plurality of processing instructions which enablescentral processing system 20 to receive inputs of data and informationin accordance with the present invention. Program 32 may be written inany conventional computer language that is comprehensible to centralprocessing system 20, such as C++, Visual Basic, or the like.

Program 32 is operative to interpret raw data received from healthmonitoring device 16, such as an electret transducer and a foil electrettransducer. In particular, the health statistics of a user received froma health monitoring device may include one or more waveforms indicativeof a user's blood pressure. Program 32 may perform K1, K2 and K3waveform analysis as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,826 to Blank,which is incorporated herein by reference. These analyses includeperforming one or more of analyzing shapes of the waveforms, slopes ofthe waveforms, areas under the curve of the waveforms and timing ofthese events to measure arterial pressure, arterial pressure over time,blood flow, arterial elasticity, and the like. As a result of theseanalyses, an overall cardiac condition of the patient, including cardiacoutput, which may be used in conjunction with the instant invention.

From this information, and in conjunction with the data stored in fields54-68 of database 34, program 32 is further operative to determine auser's cardiovascular age factor or “real age factor,” also referred toherein as a health status. This health status is a numeric indicationresulting from a statistical comparison of the analyses describedimmediately above for the user and statistics derived from analyses ofall users who have submitted their health statistics to system 10. Inparticular, program 32 is operative to determine a mean figure forcardiovascular health and standard deviations from the mean for theplurality of users. The health statistic of an individual is thencompared to the mean figure. The health status of the user may then bedetermined according to the number of standard deviations the user'shealth statistic is from the mean figure. Factors such as a person'sage, weight, activity level, ethnic background, medical history andfamily medical history may be used to refine the health status of theindividual, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

The health status, once determined, may then be used to diagnose ahypertensive condition of the user and to determine any necessary courseof treatment, including prescribing further tests such as anangiogramme. In addition, as each user submits their information andhealth statistics, the system more accurately describes the healthcondition of the population at large and may provide researchers,insurance providers and the like with a real time view of the same.

In lieu of receiving raw data, as described above, program 32 is alsooperative to receive waveform analyses performed by one of computers11-13, provide a statistical comparison to the plurality of users and tostore the analyzed information in a user record. Thus, it iscontemplated that the waveform analyses may be performed locally atcomputers 11-13 or centrally by CPS 20.

Database 34 may be any commonly available database program such asORACLE, and is preferably any high-level SQL-based database programoperative to receive, maintain and output data for a suitable number ofusers for fields 36-68, which are described further below.

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate exemplary fields which may be included in adatabase 34 used by CPS 20 to track individual and population-widehealth statistics and statuses. Each user submission is stored in arecord 34 a, which is represented by one row of FIGS. 3A and 3B.

Database 34 preferably contains name field 36, login ID field 38,password field 40, address field 42, physician field 44, insuranceprovider field 46, financial account field 48, account identifier field50, date/time field 52, age field 54, weight field 56, activity levelfield 58, ethnic background field 60, medical history field 62, familymedical history field 64, data from monitoring device field 66 anddetermined cardiovascular age factor field 68.

Name field 36 preferably stores a users name or other definitiveidentifying data such as a social security number, driver's licensenumber or the like. Upon a user's request, this information may besuppressed when third parties perform research using database 34.

Login ID 38 is a unique login identification that a user uses whensubmitting health statistics and information or when searching database34. The login ID may be any alpha, numeric or alphanumeric sequence andmay furthermore be selected by the user or assigned by CPS 20.

Password field 40 contains any alpha, numeric or alphanumeric sequencethat a user must input to verify his identity upon attempting to accessdatabase 34. If desired, a user may provide his login ID and password toan attending physician so that he or she may access the user's records.

Address field 42 preferably contains an address of the user but maycontain any other contact information such as a post office box number,a work address, a telephone number, or an e-mail address where the usermay be reached.

Physician field 44 preferably contains a name and contact informationfor a treating physician for the user. It may also contain the names ofphysicians authorized to access the user's information.

Insurance provider field 46 preferably contains the name, contactinformation and/or policy information of a user's health insuranceprovider. It is contemplated that a health insurance provider may payfor the instant service and/or would want access to the informationconcerning their insureds. Thus, field 46 has been provided so that aninsurance provider may be contacted for payment or may receive thehealth information they require.

Financial account field 48, in conjunction with account identifier field50, is included so that a fee for the service may be charged against auser's financial account such as a credit card, a banking account or anonline digital cash account. In one embodiment, a user may be charged afee for submitting or accessing information. In the alternative, fields48 and 50 may list an insurance provider if the fee is to be paid bythat entity.

Date/time field 52 contains a date and or a time that a user hassubmitted health statistics and information. Thus, a history for theuser may be generated based on each submission the user provides.Date/time field 52 will then be used to sort the user's information intochronological order.

Age field 54 preferably contains an age of the user or an age group towhich the user belongs. Likewise, weight field 56 preferably contains aweight of the user or a weight group to which the user belongs. Theheight of the user may also be stored in this field or in a separatefield (not shown).

Activity level field 58 preferably describes a user's physical activitylevel, such as the amount of times per week the user exercises and thelike.

Ethnic background field 60 preferably contains a description of theancestry of the user which may be useful in predicting dispositions tocertain health conditions.

Medical history field 62 preferably contains a list of maladies orconditions that the user has suffered in the past which may be useful inpredicting dispositions to certain health conditions and in prescribingtreatments.

Family medical history field 64 preferably contains a list of maladiesor conditions known to have been suffered by any of the user's bloodrelatives. This information may be useful in predicting dispositions tocertain health conditions.

Data from monitoring device field 66 preferably contains the raw orpre-analyzed data received from the monitoring device 16 over thecommunication network 17. In the alternative, field 66 may contain apointer to another file location in the data storage device 30 wheresuch data may be stored.

The determined cardiovascular age field 68 preferably contains thedetermined cardiovascular age factor for the user, derived in the mannerdescribed above in conjunction with program 32.

Further fields or fewer fields may be used in accordance with thisinvention, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

Additional embodiments may be used separately or in conjunction with theinvention as described above. In particular, it is contemplated thatmeasurements rom a health monitoring device may be used in determining acardiovascular or real age factor. Population statistics may be compiledfrom individual statistics and statuses. Measurements of a patient'shealth statistics may be made by a health monitoring device during astartup routine performed by an attached personal computer, or the like.Fees may be charged for accessing information from or storinginformation in the database, as well as for using or purchasing anapparatus for use in health monitoring. Individual user's privacy may bemaintained by blocking access by certain parties to stored patientidentifying information. Access to the database may be accomplished viathe Internet, direct modem access, and the like. Other variations of theinstant invention may also be apparent to one of ordinary skill in theart.

In an illustrative arrangement, monitoring devices 16 are sold tophysicians or leased to them for use with their patients in providingaccurate measurements of arterial pressure, blood flow, elasticity andthe like. These devices 16 would induce a data entry means and aconnection to processor 22, e.g., over the Internet. In a sale or leasesituation, the patient could be charged a fee for a test with thedevice. This fee would entitle the patient not only to the test results,but a file or record on the database 34 and access to it, e.g., via theInternet. A lesser fee could be charged for subsequent tests with thedevice 16.

During the test in the physician's office, information about thepatient, e.g., as represented by the fields shown in FIGS. 3A and 3Bwould be entered on device 16. Device 16 would automatically establish aconnection with processor 22 and database 34, where the patient recordwould be created and the data stored. Processor 22 could also issue alogin ID 38 and password 40 to the patient. This would be transmittedback to device 16 and given to the patient. The physicians office wouldalso keep a record of this information in the patient's file, so thephysician would have access to the information, especially whenadditional information is added subsequently.

During later visits to the physician the tests could be repeated and thepatient's record on database 34 updated. In addition, the patient couldperiodically take the test at public kiosks 12 or could access his orher record at the kiosk for review. If the patient was feeling uneasyabout his or her health condition, the kiosk could be used for a test onan “as desired” basis. Use of the kiosk would be on a fee basis tosupport the maintenance of the kiosk.

In addition to the kiosk, the patient may gain access to his recordsover the Internet using a standard PC equipped with a modem and webbrowser software. It is anticipated that this access would be withoutcharge to the user. This would include access to the person'scardiovascular age, which the patient could track over time, seeing itdecrease with exercise and medication or increase when a course oftreatment is not followed.

The physician can also make entries in the patient's record, e.g., fromdevice 16 in his office or a kiosk. This information may, for example,put limits on test results and instructions in case the limits areexceeded. In this regard the physician may require that whenever thepatient's blood pressure exceeds 140/100, when the patient receives theresults he is also instructed to call the physician. In addition or asan alternative, the physician may be notified by means of a messagedelivered to device 16 in his office to contact the patient and thereason the contact should be made. Further, the physician may routinelyreview the patient's record or may review it in anticipation of a visit.Such access to the database, may be on a fee basis which is charged tothe patient. Similarly, the operator of the system may establishaccounts and charge insurance companies and researchers for access tothe database. The fees may be different, so that researchers connectedwith hospitals and universities are subsidized by commercial entitieslike insurance companies. As noted above, limitations may be placed onthe amount of access by researchers and insurance companies.

Although the invention has been described in detail in the foregoingembodiments, it is to be understood that they have been provided forpurposes of illustration only and that other variations both in form anddetail can be made thereupon by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is definedsolely by the appended claims.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with processing instructions for directing a processor to perform a method for compiling health information, the method comprising: establishing a database for storing a plurality of health statuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database is centrally-accessible; receiving, from the plurality of users, data corresponding to a respective health statistic of each of the plurality of users, the data being generated by a health monitoring device and computer, and wherein the data is generated during startup of the computer; determining a respective health status of each of the plurality of users from the health statistic, wherein each respective health status is a statistical comparison of a user health statistic with a totality of the respective health statistics received from each of the plurality of users; storing the health status in the database; storing a population statistic that describes the health condition of the population at large; and updating said population statistic based on the health status and the plurality of health statuses of the users.
 2. The computer-readable medium encoded of claim 1, wherein the processing instructions further include the step of determining a cardiovascular age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on at least one of the respective health status and the user health statistic.
 3. The computer-readable medium encoded of claim 1, wherein the processing instructions further include the step of determining a real age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on at least one of the respective health status and the user health statistic.
 4. An apparatus for compiling health information, comprising: a processor; and a memory operatively connected to the processor for storing processing instructions directing the processor to: establish a database for storing a plurality of health statuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database is centrally-accessible; receive, from the plurality of users, data corresponding to a respective health statistic of each of the plurality of users, the data generated by a health monitoring device and computer, and wherein the data is generated during startup of the computer; determine a respective health status of each of the plurality of users from the health statistic, wherein each respective health status is a statistical comparison of a user health statistic with a totality of the respective health statistics received from each of the plurality of users store the health status in the database; store a population statistic that describes the health condition of the population at large; and update the population statistic based on the health status and the plurality of health statuses of the users.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing instructions are further configured to direct the processor to determine a cardiovascular age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on at least one of the respective health status and the user health statistic.
 6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing instructions are further configured to direct the processor to determine a real age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on at least one of the respective health status and the user health statistic.
 7. An apparatus for compiling health information comprising: a processor; a database connected to the processor for storing a plurality of health statuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database is centrally-accessible through the processor; wherein said processor receives, from the plurality of users, data corresponding to a respective health statistic of each of the plurality of users, the data having been generated by a health monitoring device and a computer, and wherein the data was generated during a startup routine of the computer; wherein said processor determines a respective health status of each of the plurality of users from the health statistic, wherein each respective health status is a statistical comparison of a user health to that of other users; wherein said processor stores the health status in the database; wherein said processor stores a population statistic that describes the health condition of the population at large; and wherein said processor updates the population statistic based on the health status and the plurality of health statuses of the users.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the means for determining are further configured to determine a cardiovascular age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on at least one of the respective health status and the user health statistic.
 9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the means for determining are further configured to determine a real age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on at least one of the respective health status and the user health statistic.
 10. An apparatus for submitting acoustical cardiovascular data to a central database, comprising: means for receiving, from a plurality of users, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal of each of the plurality of users; means for initializing a cardiovascular monitoring device connected to a computer in response to the request; means for measuring the cardiovascular signal during a startup routine of the computer; means for receiving, at the computer, at least a portion of the detected cardiovascular signal and/or the measured cardiovascular signal of a respective one of the plurality of users; means for transmitting data as received based on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database for storage in a record corresponding to the respective one of the plurality of users along with a population statistic that describes the health condition of the population at large, which is updated with the received respective cardiovascular signal from the user; and means for receiving at the computer a respective health status of the user, wherein each respective health status is a statistical comparison of a user health to that of other users.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, further including a means for determining a cardiovascular age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on the detected cardiovascular signal.
 12. The apparatus of claim 10, further including a means for determining a real age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on the detected cardiovascular signal.
 13. An apparatus, for submitting acoustical cardiovascular data to a central database, comprising: a processor; and a memory operatively connected to the processor for storing processing instructions directing the processor to: receive, from a plurality of users, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal of each of the plurality of users; initialize a cardiovascular monitoring device connected to a computer in response to the request; measure the cardiovascular signal during the startup routine of the computer; receive, at the computer, at least a portion of the detected cardiovascular signal and/or the measured cardiovascular signal of a respective one of the plurality of users; transmit data as received based on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database for storage in a record corresponding to the respective one of the plurality of users, said database storing a population statistic that describes the health condition of the population at large and which population statistic is updated based on the received respective cardiovascular signal of the users; and receive at the computer a respective health status of the user, wherein each respective health status is a statistical comparison of a user health to that of other users.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processing instructions are further configured to direct the processor to determine a cardiovascular age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on the detected cardiovascular signal.
 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the processing instructions are further configured to direct the processor to determine a real age factor of at least one of the plurality of users based on the detected cardiovascular signal.
 16. An apparatus for submitting acoustical cardiovascular data to a central database, comprising: means for receiving, from a plurality of users, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal of each of the plurality of users; means for initializing a cardiovascular monitoring device connected to a computer in response to the request; means for measuring the cardiovascular signal, wherein the means for measuring the cardiovascular signal is operable during a startup routine performed by the computer; means for receiving, at the computer, at least a portion of the detected cardiovascular signal and/or the measured cardiovascular signal of a respective one of the plurality of users; means for transmitting data based on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database for storage in a record corresponding to the respective one of the plurality of users; and means for updating a population statistic based on the received respective cardiovascular signal, wherein the population statistic describes a cardiovascular health condition of the population at large.
 17. An apparatus for submitting acoustical cardiovascular data to a central database, comprising: a processor; and a memory operatively connected to the processor for storing processing instructions directing the processor to: receive from a plurality of users, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal of each of the plurality of users; initialize a cardiovascular monitoring device connected to a computer in response to the request; measure the cardiovascular signal with the cardiovascular monitoring device, wherein the cardiovascular monitoring device is operable to measure the cardiovascular signal during a startup routine performed by the computer; receive, at the computer, at least a portion of the detected cardiovascular signal and/or the measured cardiovascular signal of a respective one of the plurality of users; transmit data based on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database for storage in a record corresponding to the respective one of the plurality of users; and updating a population statistic based on the received respective cardiovascular signal, wherein the population statistic describes a cardiovascular health condition of the population at large. 